Apple TV — Blog — Healy Chen

Apple TV 4K

I’ve always been a big proponent of spending money to make your life easier. It’s a wonder then why I waited so long to get an Apple TV 4K unit for my LG television. Farewell, LG’s utterly crappy WebOS! No more apps crashing, paused shows not starting back up, and general unresponsiveness. More importantly: LG can no longer harvest my usage information.

The reason I delayed on getting the Apple TV is the price. After spending $1,800 on the LG OLED, I really didn’t want to immediately spend another $129 (plus tax) for something that duplicates what the TV can already do (albeit poorly). One year later, I’m finally fed up. Still determined to save money, I bought my Apple TV 4K from the Apple Refurbished store, for a $20 saving. Combined with a $100 Apple Gift Card that I bought for $90, it brings the Apple TV to a price just palatable enough to click checkout.

If you’re going to run a TV operating system, you really want the power of the iPhone. The A15 chip in the Apple TV 4K makes everything buttery smooth. Apps launch super quickly; there’s nothing you the user can do to flummox the unit. Best of all, the exquisitely-built aluminum Apple TV remote can serve duty to control the LG TV as well. While it lacks buttons to switch the TV’s inputs (I have a PlayStation 5 plugged in as well), merely starting up the PS5 (using its own controller) will cause the TV to switch to the appropriate input automatically.

Consumer tech is as its best when it can delight like that. I can now relegate the LG remote to storage.

The only thing preventing Apple TV 4K from being perfect, is the inability to act as an interface for over-the-air TV signals. It would be sweet if I didn’t have to leave Apple TV to watch local broadcast channels. Perhaps in future iterations? Overall I am incredibly happy with the purchase.

When it works

Dehumidifiers are awesome. I run a tiny one in my bathroom to keep down the moisture. Every few days I would check the reservoir and it’s always amazing to see there’s water collected. I don’t pretend to know or care how exactly does a dehumidifier work to suck water out of the air. All I know is this little thing I bought from Costco nearly a year ago have continued to work magnificently, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Not bad for a $40 dollar thing that’s made in China.

I do love it when a product does its designated function well. Unfortunately I cannot say that for my LG OLED TV. Indeed it puts out an exquisite picture: 4K HDR content looks spectacular on it. However, there’s one big annoyance: the TV’s underlying operating system is absolute garbage. It’s so slow and unreliable that I wonder if LG really want people do use their native OS! I am this close to getting a Google Chromecast or an Apple TV device.

The interface’s slowness I can somewhat deal with. Once a show gets going, the issue becomes unobtrusive. What I cannot tolerate is getting unceremoniously kicked out of the app I’m currently using. I would be watching a Youtube video and then suddenly I’m back out to the no input selection screen. With zero warning! How did LG screw this up so badly? Did they blow the entire budget on the display itself? I mean, it is a super gorgeous display!

I think this will be one of the quality-of-life- annoyances that it would be best to just throw money at it and fix once and for all. Instead of death by a thousand cuts. Apple TV puck here I come!